Quotes: Xenophobia Behind NYT Charter Schools Story?

Substitute "Canadian" for "Turkish" and "Christian" for "Islam" and.... no one would care. -- An email response about NYT cover story yesterday (via Whitney Tilson). See below for full quote.

11) I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this cover story in today’s NYT about Harmony Schools, a large network of 120 charter schools in 25 states, until a friend in Texas sent me this:

I was surprised in some way to find this in the NY Times: a very long article with only a brief mention of academic achievement and no mention of their long waiting lists. Substitute "Canadian" for "Turkish" and "Christian" for "Islam" and if you read it again no one would care. This is another article more focused on jobs for adults and not outcomes for kids with a little xenophobia thrown in. These schools don't cost the taxpayer any more money than another charter school (and less than a public school) and 16 of 19 carry the state's highest rating with above average SAT scores.

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This is the largest and fastest growing charter chain in the country, and it happens to be under federal investigation for diverting public funds and misusing the granting of work visas for private -- and possibly political -- purposes. This is a matter of grave concern.

The fact that these charter schools are linked to a fundamentalist religious sect is yet another serious issue, whether it was foreign-based or not.

By the way, the long waiting lists that Harmony claims have never been independently verified. And, for a school that supposedly scores so high on state tests, their SAT scores s***http://www.slideshare.net/CASILIPS

By the way, I'm starting the Hamburger Helper Hummingbird Tech Academy charter school tomorrow and I have 25,000 families on my waiting list.